A conventional method and apparatus for cleaning a poultry carcass are known from EP-A-1 538 917. In the known method and apparatus, brushing of the poultry carcasses is done after the carcasses are defeathered and eviscerated. This however does not provide a solution to the problem that the poultry carcasses also require cleaning prior to their being processed to prepare for defeathering and evisceration in order to avoid contamination of the water used during the scalding process that precedes defeathering.
A live chicken collects litter and feces at the farm, particularly at biological farms. This litter and feces attaches to the chickens in the form of lumps and is of course required to be removed prior to processing the live chickens to chicken parts or to—except for cooking ready-to-eat meat—to avoid unsanitary conditions which may be detrimental to a person's health.
Despite its lack of imagination, the skilled person bearing knowledge of EP-A-1 538 917 may perhaps consider to brush the poultry at an early stage of its processing while it is still feathered. A problem is, however, that the longhaired bristles of the known apparatus are not equipped to remove the lumps of litter and feces, since during operation the bristles follow a more or less straight line along the poultry carcasses' exteriors without effectively coming into contact with those lumps for their removal.
Another problem of the prior art method and apparatus is that the brush means may deteriorate the outer appearance of the chickens due to scratching.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus with which an effective cleaning of the outside of poultry carcasses can be carried out while the carcasses still bear feathers.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a method and apparatus wherein the cleaning of the poultry exterior does not adversely affect the visual appearance of the poultry.
According to the invention a method and apparatus are therefore proposed having the features of one or more of the appended claims.